Columnist Reflects on bombings, pride in American heritage

For my last article this year, I’m going to take a more serious note which is very rare for me. I think that I’ve covered every funny thing I wanted to say about campus for the time being, and instead want to reflect on my fascination with the situations that kept every American glued to their television and computers a few weekends ago. I really shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was absolutely floored that CNN and the other news networks seemed to fail, regular citizens were coming out of the woodwork to act as alternative reporters to keep everyone, coast to coast, informed on what was happening in their backyards.

Every time something happens, whether it’s miniscule or on a national level, social media responds. Everything from what Miley Cyrus is doing with her hair to much more somber events, like those recently affecting every corner of America, seem to instantaneously get their own hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. It’s not long before pictures surface either criticizing whichever celebrity hairstylist chopped off Miley’s mermaid locks or showing vast support for cities like Boston dealing with tragedies that are almost incomprehensible.

In a paper I wrote earlier this semester, I talked about how I feel that American pride is becoming cool again, if it ever disappeared in the first place. Essentially gone are the days where the millennial generation is like, so totally antiestablishment, man. I think it’s evident that although quite a few people don’t approve of what is happening in Washington D.C., that doesn’t stop them from showing that these colors don’t run, whether it be on an American flag outside a frat house or by sporting a “Back to Back World War Champs” Rowdy Gentleman tank on a warm summer’s day.

Think about it: this is the first really, really absolutely awful week in US history that our generation has been old enough to completely comprehend. We weren’t rushing home from work or school wondering what the latest developments were in September 2001, we just wanted our parents to tell us that everything was going to be alright and that we still had soccer practice and that our lives wouldn’t change.

Chew on this: it’s not surprising that a group of people that is so glued to every shred of technology ALL THE TIME would choose those sources with almost universally downloaded apps as their main information sources. Is TV news going to fall by the wayside? I mean obviously not, but when you have CNN getting facts wrong no one can be shocked when other resources are used. I actually had to laugh about how a website with accounts like @CommonWhiteGirl and all of those horrendous (funny?) parody accounts of inappropriate Disney characters became a reputable way of finding out what you missed in the two seconds you didn’t have your iPhone on you.

Sorry to get so heavy, Jays, but never before have I felt so proud to be an American. I know that most of my weekends end up with me singing that infamous tune in a basement somewhere in the borough, but now that song has such a deeper meaning for me. Where else can such an emotionally charged city all band together and catch the bad guys like in a blockbuster superhero movie? I mean maybe it could happen elsewhere, but Lord knows it wouldn’t be nearly as sweet as when the red, white and blue goes from half to full mast when the saga is over.

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